Pentagon Said to Order Cutting Littoral Ships by 20

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-15/pentagon-said-to-direct-cutting-littoral-ships-to-32-from-52.html


Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Workers construct a U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship at Marinette Marine Corp., in Marinette, Wisconsin.

The Pentagon has given the U.S. Navy preliminary instructions to buy 32 of its troubled Littoral Combat Ships instead of the 52 previously planned, according to defense officials.

The directive to scrap 20 of the planned ships came in a Jan. 6 memo from Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox to the Navy that could be overturned or modified before the final budget proposal for fiscal 2015 is released, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified before an announcement.

The program to build 52 ships by 2026, in two versions made by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Austal Ltd. (ASB), has faced an expanding list of questions about the vessels’ manning, mission, firepower, defenses and survivability, even as costs have soared amid Pentagon budget cuts. The total cost to develop and build the ships intended for use in shallow coastal waters is currently projected at $32 billion.

Fox’s memo asked the Navy to plan for reduced budgets for 2016 and beyond under a continuation of the automatic cuts known as sequestration, with one sentence providing the directive on the Littoral Combat Ship. The Navy is scheduled to meet tomorrow with top Defense Department officials to discuss the order and other budget decisions, one of the officials said.